Serendipity’s Value in Business

Serendipity is a significant factor in both the creative process and the business process. In my experience, making good use of serendipity is a combination of things: actively setting up opportunities, a willingness to go with the flow of events, the ability to see the thing that arises by chance, and finally, being prepared to seize the opportunity—prepared both in the sense of being open to the possibility and ready to take advantage of it. A recent article in the Economist, “In search of serendipity,” reviewing the book “The Power of Pull: How Small Moves, Smartly Made, Can Set Big Things In Motion” by John Hagel, John Seely Brown and Lang Davison reaffirms some basic ideas I have long practiced in both my creative and business life.

Serendipity is a significant factor in both the creative process and the business process.

These are ideas of value to anyone in business. If I look at nearly every one of my key business relationships—vendors, employees, clients—they all have this one thing in common: They came to me primarily by some chain of tenuous, circumstantial connections, or a seemingly random sequences of events. From this has come to me a valuable business resource. I have developed a kind of faith in this process, and I have come to terms with a certain lack of control that this entails. I also recognize that this is not, by any means, a foolproof mechanism for business or for life, and I can cite not a few blind alleys it has led me down, but upon reflection, all of those came with significant educational benefits.

I’m not a Daoist. I don’t just wait for opportunity to float into view. Far from it. The serendipitous opportunity must, in fact, be actively sought after. The key is to seek out environments of opportunity—for me this means to do business in New York City, to network socially and formally, and to always talk to my neighbor, friend, acquaintance about my passion, which is my work. Having that conversation while listening very carefully and staying alert to what opportunities pass within this orbit of activity, then acting on them with tools that have been well prepared, is easiest to understand in the context of sales.

Let’s take a most recent example: My home in Brooklyn is rather large and we regularly have short-term exchange students that put some of our extra bedrooms to good use, and expose our kids to world cultures. Prior to our current pair of high school students from Mauritania, we had a student from Japan who was also, it turns out, an employee of a large educational toy manufacturer in Japan. On his last day here, I showed him our company portfolio and he took a digital version back with him to Japan. It’s been two weeks since he left and now we are in a contract to develop his company’s US brand and website, and to shepherd the process of introducing their product line to US. This is a pretty strong case for an entirely serendipitous opportunity consummated on mutual recognition of the benefits, and a little preparedness.

The serendipitous opportunity must, in fact, be actively sought after.

If you think about your own experience, I’m sure you will recognize that this kind of thing happens all the time. The key is to pay attention and to be ready. Our company portfolio was ready. I also speak fluent Japanese, have kids in the target age groups for their products, and wrote a strong and reasonable proposal when the request came in the day after he returned to Japan.

In another example, we are presenting to Wollmuth Maher & Deutsch today to redevelop their brand and website. This is happening because one of the partners was for one season the coach of my son’s soccer team. At the end of the season we hosted a barbecue at our house. During the barbecue, I found out that he was a partner in a law firm which lead to a discussion of our Chaffetz Lindsey project, then in production. When the Chaffetz Lindsey site went live in August last year, I sent him an email about it. That was our last correspondence for nearly a year. Last week he called saying simply, “We’re ready. When can you come in and present?” I don’t need to pile on the examples to make the point. If not for this barbecue I hosted, this never would have happened.

If you liked this post you may also like these:

So what do you call this thing that does NOT take massive effort, but has the potential for great positive effect far beyond its seeming capacity?
I think one very good answer to this question was was provided in 1972 by Buckminster Fuller when he said the following in an interview ...read more

If your mission, your reason for being in the world—regardless of weather you are a nonprofit, a for-profit, a museum or an educational institution—is good, then you have no excuse not to market yourself.read more

What is the difference between marketing and branding?
In a recent conversation with a very senior person at a financial institution my colleague was told, "I think private wealth managers will have a hard time seeing the value of branding—they see marketing as a cost center, not a driver of sales."
Hold it.
How did we go from branding to marketing in one sentence like that?read more

What can you do that will be effective at getting the word out, but will not break the bank?
Is there a relatively inexpensive tactical shift can you make right now that will yield significant long term results?
The answer is yes. It's just a matter of finding it. It will not be obvious or easy.read more

You think you are in control. "You"—your sense of self—your highly developed, amazingly capable conscious mind, housed in the big wrinkly hemispheric thing that we most often associate with the brain: the neocortex—is not really in control as much as it thinks. It's just easier for all of us to carry on with this delusion.read more

The warning label which works contrary to our tendency toward optimism and self-indulgence misses the potential leverage point because the possible event of a future consequence can be set aside, rationalized away, and, most importantly, simply ignored because we (most of us) are biologically wired to pay little attention to such warnings.read more

A persona is a kind of mental model—an imaginary person with a name, history and story who has a way of doing things. A persona should have enough psychological detail to allow you to conveniently step over to the persona's view, and see your products and services from her perspective.read more

“Photography, as a powerful medium of expression and communications, offers an infinite variety of perception, interpretation and execution.” (Ansel Adams)
Our initial reaction to photographic images often leans towards belief or trust that the picture tells a true, unbiased story. By following these gut reactions, we are often led by the hand toward manipulation by advertisers, marketers, and product designers. But if we aren’t going to get the thing that we are shown, why even bother?read more

What impresses me most about nuclear materials is the inhuman scale of their behavior. For example, what does it mean that some radioactive materials, like Plutonium 244, have a half life of 80 million years? This "half-life" is 8,000 times longer than all of recorded human history. This has to make you wonder, at least a little, if we are out of our league when we mess with this kind of stuff.read more

People and relationships are critical in business to business transactions, and so a strong B2B brand should communicate a sense of personal connection. It should speak to who the key players are and what it will be like to work with them. Great people photography facilitates this tremendously.read more

When saying "I don't need a brand. I need a product." the speaker was saying she doesn’t need McDonalds, she just needs fries—any fries for that matter. She doesn’t need HP, she just needs a computer or printer—any computer or printer will do. She's assuming her consumers will behave this way. I think they will not.read more

A stranger steps up to you on the subway and asks you to write a poem. You pause to consider the request. Then you let down your guard, detach from the rush, open your heart and oblige. In that moment you are being a true New Yorker—friendly, generous, creative, kind.read more